Sound Research

After looking at lots of action trailers it was clear that sound plays a major part in creating atmosphere and in emphasising the action. For example in Gamer (released in 2009) the sounds compliments the action throughout. When the titles come up on screen at the start of the trailer, a lot of non diegetic sound can be heard on top of the action, for example thudding and crashing noises, to emphasise the writing on screen. After the titles there is a lull in the sound then the soundtrack kicks in which runs through most of the trailer. In parts of the trailer the music fades so the audience can concentrate on whats happening on screen and then the music will pick up again as the action continues. On the top of the music when necessary a deep stereotypical voice over starts and the music plays quietly in the background while the narrator speaks.
Inglorious Basterds starts with a non diegetic soundtrack playing softly in the background while the diegetic speech can be heard. Sounds effects then compliment the writing on screen as well. When the action picks up later in the trailer the music picks up also as the drums and guitars get louder to compliment the action.

As it was apparent from watching these trailers and many more that sound was key to making a successful trailer. We knew that any music in our trailer would have to be copyright free music so we looked on the Internet to see what options we had. First of all we looked on http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/. There were a few songs of interest including Final Goal. The problem with that song was the sponsors kept saying their name over the top of the song every 5 seconds so that track was not an option. It quickly became apparent that this was the case on all song from this website so we decided to try a different website. We then decided to look at http://www.soundzabound.com/. This website had better quality songs than the previous website but after reading a bit into the terms and conditions of the website we found out that you would have to pay for the music which we felt wasn't necessary. Some of the songs we found that initially interested us on that website were titled Surge and Hard Slam.
The next website we tried was called http://www.freeplaymusic.com/. This was by far the best website we had tried and we checked that we didn't have to pay for these tracks. The first song we found was called Bouncing. But after all of the group had heard it we decided it wouldn't be suitable for our film. The next three we found were exactly what we were looking for. These were titled Eliminator, Mugshot and Apocalypse. After listening to some more songs from that website we only found one more of interest and that was called Only Human. We then listened to each song as a group and decided which bits from each track would song good in our trailer. We thought that the first 24 seconds of Mugshot was a really nice fast paced rock intro. Other sections of Mugshot we particularly liked was a section in the middle from 37-50 seconds and then from 1.26 to 1.50. The ending of Mugshot from 2.27 till the end we think would sound excellent at the end of any action film trailer.
The next song Eliminator also has a start that we particularly like so we chose 0-8 seconds as a good section of the song. Other parts of the song we liked was 8-26 seconds and then 1.31 till 1.55 seconds. We also noted down 2.15 as around there there is a good part to the song.
The third song we chose bits from is Apocalypse. This song has good bit from the start to 24 seconds. Then we liked 24-36, 36-1.00 and finally 1.10 till 2.00. Mugshot, Eliminator and Apocalypse are all quite heavy rock song so we felt we needed another song to counterbalance all the rock music and that is when we found the song Only Human. It's a slow song that is key to building tension and suspense in our trailer. What we liked about Only Human is the start to the song. Another song we discovered while looking at slow songs is On The Trigger. We especially liked the opening 40 seconds of that song.
Once we have made our trailer we may find that these songs don't fit but at the moment we feel the tracks we have chosen will fit our action film trailer.